On the Outside, Looking In
by mereschino
Summary: Lily Evans is a wellknown Mediwizard, sought after by the stars. James Potter is a Quidditch star, and a member of the Order of Phoenix. But what happens when James is attacked and Lily takes care of him, but they don't remember who the other is? COMPLETE
1. Default Chapter

Disclaimer: I own nothing copyrighted by anyone like J.K. Rowling, Warner Brothers, etc.  
  
Note: Okay, I know I should be writing my other stories, but I haven't written a James/Lily in such a long time, and I've had this idea written down for quite awhile. At this time, I think I'm just going to be posting the opening and second chapter to get a feel for how people like this. I believe I am going to write a lot of it and then post it steadily, but I still have to finish my two other stories. So let me know what you think!  
  
Dedicated to the wonderful and talented Banana, Steph and Emily; my core compliment team. You guys keep me writing, and even review if you've read the chapter already in class or when we see each other. Steph, I included those Wizarding cigarettes I told you about, but haven't been able to work in apple cinnamon tea or the Tour De France yet, sorry.

* * *

Mediwizard Lily Evans strode quickly into the emergency ward at St. Mungo's, white robe fluttering out behind her. Her emerald eyes immediately settled on the frenzy of activity around an incoming patient, while reporters unsuccessfully snapped away speedily at the crowd. Lily groaned as this could only mean one thing: another high-profile patient to squeeze into her already chaotic roster.  
  
'What've we got?' she snapped briskly as she reached the gurney, taking charge of the situation.  
  
'24 year old male, attacked by a group of others outside of his apartment building. He apparently fought off a few but there were too many,' a nurse stated.  
  
'Deatheaters?'  
  
'Apparently, but the ministry is looking into it. The patient has multiple abrasions, but his pulse is weak and thready and there's too much blood to readily see where the main injury is,' the nurse continued to whip off the stats.  
  
Though successfully trying to focus on the man in front of her, Lily was quite relieved when security dispersed the choking crowd of reporters who were using any means to get pictures of the patient. 'No name?' she asked, looking up from where she was gently touching the patient with one hands, while passing her wand over his body.  
  
The nurse just grinned at her. 'Nope, but the man who came with him, his agent or something, specifically requested you.'  
  
Lily stifled another groan. As a mediwizard to supposed 'stars', her time was constantly filled with whining celebrities only seeking her attention because it was the 'in' thing to do. And as for his name, Lily already knew that even if a name had come with this kind of case, it would not necessarily be the right one.  
  
The tip of wand glowed blue as it passed over the man's lower stomach, and Lily knew what was wrong. 'Alright, this man's been hit with the Concerpo curse, repeatedly it looks like, as bleeding is only caused after approximately the third time the curse has been used on a person. The rest of the scratches were not made by magical means, and so I deduct that his attackers took out a little bit of aggression after he had been knocked unconscious. He's in no immediate danger but he needs a potion to stop the bleeding. Move him into room 5, and I'll be along shortly to finish up.'  
  
Her orders were quickly carried out, and Lily sighed as she watched the gurney being wheeled down the hall. Turning, she strode the opposite way to her office in order to catch her breath.

* * *

Lily Vienna Evans was 24 years old, smart, gorgeous and a former Gryffindor Head Girl at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Though quite popular and well-liked by those who knew her, Lily hadn't gained public notoriety as a Mediwizard until she had found the cure of the crippling curse Sense Noir, a hex heavily favoured by the villains known as Deatheaters. This hex rendered its victims deaf, blind, mute and fully paralyzed; in essence vegetables or complete shells of their former selves. She had stumbled upon the cure when working out its formula one late night at St. Mungo's. Suddenly everything clicked into place, and the answer was right in front of her, much simpler than had been previously thought. This discovery had thrust her into the spotlight in the wizarding community, and she had become an overnight sensation. Celebrities of all kinds now sought Lily's help on every magical malady, even those in their heads because if Lily was their healer, they were front page news too.  
  
Sinking down onto the leather couch in her office, she let out a long sigh. Lily had already pulled a full shift, and with this new patient, it seemed as if she would be there for at least another 10 hours. She knew this patient was a celebrity, but could not determine who it was as no name had been given and his face had been too beat up to be recognizable.  
  
Groaning, she looked around shiftily (even though she knew no one was in her office) and pulled a pack of Wizard cigarettes out of her scrub pants pocket. Lighting one up, she leaned back and tried to calm down. Wizarding cigarettes were purely made for relaxing their users, with no addictive additives (unless strongly abused) or disease-causing chemicals and no awful smell. Lily tried not to use them, but with the promise of being at the hospital for at least another 10-12 hours she needed a little bit of a pick-me-up and had no time to go grab a coffee. Taking a few more drags, she pinched the filtered end and the cigarette disappeared in a puff of smoke, just as a knock was heard on the door.  
  
Jumping up, Lily smoothed down her scrubs. 'Come in.'  
  
A fellow Mediwizard popped his head inside. 'You okay, V?' he asked, using the staff's nickname for her.  
  
'Oh hey Mark,' she sighed. 'Just a little tired.'  
  
'I'll bet. I heard you just got another incoming. Haven't you already pulled a full shift?' he asked, stepping in.  
  
'Don't remind me,' she replied, eyes shutting in exhaustion. 'If I can just ignore how long I've been here, I don't feel as bad.'  
  
'Why don't you just ask for some time off? Haven't you been here like 13 out of the past 14 days?'  
  
'Are you here for some other reason that just to remind me of the life I do not possess?' Lily threw her long red hair up into a tight ponytail.  
  
Mark just laughed. 'Actually, one of your nurses passed me outside and said that your guy in room 5 is stable and the bleeding has been stopped, so you can go deal with him whenever you're ready.'  
  
Lily heaved herself up onto her feet. 'I'll go now. No need in wasting more time, just sitting here won't make my shift go any faster.'  
  
'Atta girl. Hey, I'm just on call now, so if you're up to it, swing by my room if you get a break and we'll grab coffee.'  
  
Reaching the door, Lily smiled. 'That's the best invitation I've heard all day. All week actually. Thanks Mark.'  
  
Leaving her colleague at the door of her office, Lily bustled down the hall towards her new patient. As long as his bleeding had stopped, she wasn't that worried about him for the present. His cuts and scrapes would heal, and he would have to be kept under observation for a while as he recovered from the after effects of the Concerpo curse. But the toughest time was yet to come: the next 48 hours would be critical, as this would be the time where any internal injuries would come to light and when the lasting damage upon the patient could be guessed at.  
  
When Lily entered room 5, she was met with a bustling group of people. Even though the patient was now stable, he needed to be prepped for further inspection, procedures and his prolonged stay in the hospital.  
  
A nurse crossed to Lily and handed her a clipboard with a sheaf of parchment listing the patient's vitals. 'He's all set up for the night, and so we'll leave you to work your magic.'  
  
'Have you gotten any type of name yet?'  
  
'Actually, his agent or whatever said that for publicity reasons they cannot disclose his real name, and so for now the agent said that the name going down on all charts is John Smith. Real creative, hunh?'  
  
Lily laughed. 'It's what they're paid for.'  
  
'And apparently this 'John' will also respond to being called 'J' when he's awake. I made a note of it on his chart.'  
  
'Thanks Jane.' She looked around the room. 'Alright everyone, thanks for your help but I'll take over from here.'  
  
Just then, a disembodied voice sounded throughout the room. 'All available emergency staff to the portal. Multiple incoming assault victims in critical condition. I repeat, all available emergency staff to the portal.'  
  
Lily was left alone with 'John' in a whirlwind of motion as the staff practically bolted out of the room. She quickly moved over to the bed where the unconscious man lay, surrounded by beeping magical machines monitoring his condition. Taking out her wand, she passed it a few times over his body, noting how severe the effects of the curse had been on her patient. She worked silently on the man for the next 2 hours, first healing the gash across his stomach. She noted a few broken bones that had been passed over, and felt that his collarbone had been completely shattered. Opening his mouth, she poured a vial of Skelegrow down 'John's' throat, massaging it to make him swallow. Now his bones would knit back together while he slept, and so his discomfort in that area would be minimal. With a few flicks of her wand, Lily healed his worst bruises and closed the deep cuts all over his body, but left the scratches to heal themselves. Over the time that she had been working on 'John', she had noticed that her new patient had quite a nice body.  
  
'Good job Lily,' she said scathingly to herself. 'Now you're attracted to an unconscious patient. You really need to get out more. And he's not even that good-looking.'  
  
But as she looked down at him, she realized that she was just lying to herself. Now that she had healed him, she saw that this 'John' was, as her best friend Arabella liked to say, 'a first-class grade A hottie'. Now that his features were actually visible, she could see a very attractive face innocently slumbering there. The cuts just gave him a dangerous rakish look, as black hair tumbled down crazily over a high clear brow. A deep cut ran through one eyebrow, promising a slight scar, and the vain part of Lily was glad that nothing had marred the man's perfectly sculpted cheekbones. But something about this patient was very familiar to her, and Lily had the weirdest feeling that this wasn't the first time she had seen this man, as if they had known each other previously. But she shook herself out of it, and continued to work on her patient. After another half-hour, she had done all she could for him and made 'John' as comfortable as possible. But Lily didn't want to head back out into the chaos of the emergency ward, and decided to stay in room 5 for the next few hours, keeping the man under close 'observation.' She jotted down her intentions on a spare piece of parchment, and, enchanting it, she sent it flying down the corridor to the nursing station by the portal so that they knew where to find her.  
  
Lily often didn't have time to purely observe her patients, and so this one act really relaxed her. She was so high-profile and so most of her patients were in and out of her office so quickly that she really didn't get to have anything approaching a normal conversation with them. And because her roster was so booked, she never got to help out on cases with 'normal' patients, something that she sorely missed. Lily focussed her attention back on 'John', wondering exactly how he had gotten into this mess. He looked awfully familiar, but then he was a celebrity. She searched her brain, trying to remember who he truly was.  
  
'Well, his body is quite toned, especially his upper body, which makes me think sports,' she thought. 'He probably plays Quidditch.' Lily knew that this information wasn't going to help her any, as she didn't follow that sport since leaving Hogwarts. She leaned forward in her seat, until she was almost touching the bed. 'But if you are a Quidditch star, why would someone want to hurt you? I know people get passionate about their favourite teams, but no one in the wizarding world would take their team spirit to an extreme like hurting an opposing player.' Lily hadn't noticed that she had started speaking out loud to 'John.'  
  
'You must also have something to do with the Ministry. That's the major cause of most peoples' injuries these days. Someone is always getting assaulted because some git doesn't like a decision that's been made. Bloody idiots,' she muttered under her breath.  
  
The black-haired man groaned a little as he shifted his body, and Lily shut up. This was a sign that he was coming up out of his coma, and she knew that the sooner he awoke, the better for his long-term recovery. But he quickly lay flat and silent again, but Lily didn't feel the need to talk to him. The silence only interrupted by periodic beeps from the machines around the room was quite nice, and relaxed her much more than the cigarettes in her pocket. Over the next few hours, Lily sat making occasional notes about his condition and 'John' shifted a few times, but it was nothing to get excited about. When Lily felt herself nodding off, she rose out of her chair to go get a cup of coffee. But as she stood, she looked back at the patient, calmed by his peaceful slumber.  
  
'Who would want to do something like this to you? You seem like a nice enough guy,' she turned away towards the door, 'but then anyone can appear innocent when they're unconscious.'  
  
'They were Deatheaters if you must know,' came a groggy voice from the bed that seemed awfully familiar to Lily. She whirled around and smiled at the man.  
  
'You're awake! Much quicker than I expected though, but that's always good when it comes to injuries and your long-term recovery. How do you feel John?'  
  
He looked a little puzzled by this but furrowed his brow as he gingerly sat up. Lily moved over to the bed to help him, and placed a gentle hand upon his back. Once situated up against a bunch of pillows, he started to speak. 'Like I was beaten up by a bunch of Deatheaters.'  
  
She laughed. 'Can I get you anything? I've already given you your meds for the night, and you shouldn't be in any pain. Some of your bones are still knitting together and so I would advise you to limit your movement. Okay John?'  
  
'Why do you keep calling me that?' he asked in confusion.  
  
'It's the name your agent gave us, in replace of your real one. For security or publicity reasons or something. But he said that you would also respond if we called you 'J.' Would that be alright?' she asked, leaning over him.  
  
'J?' he pondered over that. 'J would be fine. But I'd like to know what to call you, especially if you're going to be the Mediwizard taking care of me.'  
  
Lily wondered what name to give him, as she was really tired of the attention she always got when her name was heard. She wondered how long it would take before everyone forgot about her medical discovery, and secretly longed for the day when she could walk around without someone recognizing her. Lily finally decided on giving him her hospital nickname. This way, if he asked for her, people would at least know who he meant. 'Call me V.'  
  
'V?'  
  
'Yeah, I like to keep it simple and casual between myself and my clients, and so I give them the name I'm known by around here.'  
  
'Well, V and J. What a team.'  
  
'You need to get some rest and I need to go check on some things, so I'll leave you alone. Don't strain yourself and don't even think about getting up,' Lily admonished him. 'I know what you celebrities are like. You think nothing can stop you. But you were hit by an extremely powerful curse wielded by an evil wizard, and it's going to take you a while to recover. So just lie there and sleep.'  
  
'Yes, mother,' he grinned.  
  
Lily shook her head as she walked over to the door. 'I see I'm going to have a difficult relationship with you, Mr. J.' But as she reached the door, his voice called her attention back to him.  
  
'I'm sorry V, but you look awfully familiar. Do I know you?' he asked. 'From outside the hospital I mean. My memory's pretty fuzzy right now; I think my head was knocked about a little.'  
  
She shook her head. 'I don't think so. I remember pretty much everyone I meet. I guess I just have one of those faces. Besides, you probably just recognize my face from the Daily Prophet a few years back. I discovered a cure for something big and was all over the news for awhile.'  
  
J sank down onto his pillows. 'That's probably it.'  
  
'Please get some more rest. You'll need your energy tomorrow because officials from the Ministry will be here to question you; standard procedure in all assault cases especially those including Deatheaters. I'll be back to check on you in a few hours before I go home, but if you're in pain or need anything else before then, just press that,' Lily said, pointing to the glowing green button on the metal siding of his bed.  
  
He just nodded, and closing his eyes, settled back down on his pillows.  
  
Lily strode out of the room, small smile on her face, finally on her way to get that damned cup of coffee.

* * *

Uh oh, is Lily losing her professionalism? Will she be able to keep herself from being drawn to this attractive new patient? And who is he (tee hee, like you guys don't know.) Tune in next time to find out. Same fanfic time, same fanfic channel. Or not, whatever.

Note: concerpo means to tear away (in abuse) in Latin, or so the Internet tells me. I don't know Latin, and so if I've conjugated it wrong, forgive the errors.  
  
The next chapter will be James' view of the above meeting, and will follow events after that. In the third chapter, I'll get to using their real names when writing, though they will still be referring to each other as J and V for a while.  
  
I know this is a short opening chapter, but like I said, it's been a while since I've written a James/Lily and so I'm trying to get my bearings again. Plus, I've been attacked by little plot bunnies and have to think about how to put those in.


	2. who are you?

Disclaimer: I'm not writing this to make any sort of money, it's just for fun and all that jazz. This also means that I do not own anything remotely related to Warner Brothers, Harry Potter, Starbucks or Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream.  
  
Note: The beginning of this chapter is just James' version of what went on last chapter, but then will work past and have both Lily and James. Just to clear up any confusion, when they talk to each other, they'll use V and J, but I'll be using James and Lily to signify who is speaking. K? Hope that's not too much trouble for people. If it is, so sorry.   
  
Note to Cecilia Orechio: yes, they probably would recognize each other in a world that was not fan-fiction, but my story needs them to have lives that have been really busy since Hogwarts and so they don't remember a lot of people. But don't worry, Lily chastises herself later.

* * *

When James woke up, he had no idea where he was. The last thing he remembered was standing outside of the building where he lived and hearing someone running up behind him, muttering a curse. He was just coming home from Quidditch practice for the Falmouth Falcons and he was caught off-guard, wand in his pocket. He knew that if Moody found out about that, he would be very angry and probably spout off about constant vigilance or some tripe like that. Deatheaters were always around and so he was supposed to be on guard at all times. But for some reason, his brain was filled with red glossy hair and a pleasant female voice. He also remembered something about being wheeled into St. Mungo's emergency ward, where photographers snapped away at him.   
  
Opening his eyes, he shook his head gingerly as his vision focussed. He immediately spotted a woman standing by his bed.   
  
'Who would want to do something like this to you?' she asked, turned away from him. 'You seem like a nice enough guy, but then anyone can appear innocent when they're unconscious.'  
  
'They were Deatheaters if you must know,' James said groggily, causing her to turn and smile brightly at him. As she spoke, he recognized the red hair and pleasant voice from his thoughts as he had regained consciousness.  
  
'You're awake! Much quicker than I expected though, but that's always good when it comes to injuries and your long-term recovery. How do you feel John?'  
  
James' brow furrowed, as he sat up. This must be his Mediwizard, but did she just call him John? He guessed his hearing was a little off after the head injury. As soon as he had started moving, the woman crossed to his side and gently helped him sit up. James tried to respond to her, but it took a couple of tries as her hair was swinging in front of his face, filling his nose with the scent of almonds and vanilla. 'Like I was beaten up by a bunch of Deatheaters.'  
  
This caused the woman to laugh. 'Can I get you anything? I've already given you your meds for the night, and you shouldn't be in any pain. Some of your bones are still knitting together and so I would advise you to limit your movement. Okay John?'  
  
There, she said that name again, and James was relieved to find out that his hearing was fine. To clear up the matter, he asked, 'why do you keep calling me that?'  
  
'It's the name your agent gave us, in replace of your real one. For security or publicity reasons or something. But he said that you would also respond if we called you 'J.' Would that be alright?' she asked, leaning over him again to make sure all of his machines were fine.   
  
James could've slapped himself for his stupidity over the name issue. Of course he would have a fake one in a public hospital, as he didn't need to draw attention to himself as a Quidditch player or member of the Order of Phoenix. 'J?' he pondered over that, but it was close enough to James that he wouldn't have a problem. 'J would be fine. But I'd like to know what to call you, especially if you're going to be the Mediwizard taking care of me,' having searched for her non-existent name-tag.   
  
This question obviously put this woman at a loss for words, giving James a minute to study her. Widely-known as a 'player', James was used to hitting on everything female that walks on two feet, especially if they were as beautiful as the woman standing in front of him. But for some reason, he felt no urge to try any of his lines on her, and was continually stuck on her striking familiarity.   
  
'Call me V.' Her melodic voice dragged him from his thoughts, and caused him to smirk.  
  
'V?'   
  
His healer smiled back, revealing pearly whites. 'Yeah, I like to keep it simple and casual between myself and my clients, and so I give them the name I'm known by around here.'  
  
James' perpetual grin widened. 'Well, V and J. What a team.'  
  
His words apparently reminded 'V' that she was supposed to be taking care of him, and she suddenly switched into healer mode. 'You need to get some rest and I need to go check on some things, so I'll leave you alone. Don't strain yourself and don't even think about getting up,' she admonished him. 'I know what you celebrities are like. You think nothing can stop you. But you were hit by an extremely powerful curse wielded by an evil wizard, and it's going to take you a while to recover. So just lie there and sleep.'  
  
Still grinning, he decided to tease her a little. 'Yes, mother.'   
  
As V walked over to the door, she shook her head. 'I see I'm going to have a difficult relationship with you, Mr. J.'   
  
Something about her long red hair swishing along her back as she walked away made James call out to her. 'Sorry V, but you look awfully familiar. Do I know you?' he asked. 'From outside the hospital I mean. My memory's pretty fuzzy right now; I think my head was knocked about a little.'  
  
Smiling softly, she shook her head. 'I don't think so. I remember pretty much everyone I meet. I guess I just have one of those faces. Besides, you probably just recognize my face from the Daily Prophet a few years back. I discovered a cure for something big and was all over the news for awhile.'  
  
'That's probably it,' James said, sinking down onto his pillows. He would've remembered if she had been in his circle of friends or if he had ever dated her, at least, he hoped he would've.   
  
'Please get some more rest. You'll need your energy tomorrow because officials from the Ministry will be here to question you; standard procedure in all assault cases especially those including Deatheaters. I'll be back to check on you in a few hours before I go home, but if you're in pain or need anything else before then, just press that,' his healer said, pointing to the glowing green button on the metal siding of his bed.   
  
Suddenly exhausted, James just nodded and, closing his eyes, settled back on the bed, missing as 'V' quietly left the room, a smile of anticipation on her face.

* * *

Lily woke up from a quick cat-nap the next morning when her country view suddenly switched to a bright tropical sunrise, courtesy of her colleague Matt.   
  
'Rise and shine Sleeping Beauty. Your celeb patient should be waking up soon and so I thought you might want to go grab a coffee before dealing with him. But Mr. Smith is the only patient you have to work with today.'  
  
Straightening her robe, Lily passed by him and patted him on the cheek. 'What would I do without you Matt?'  
  
'I don't think you want me to answer that question.'  
  
She yawned as she made her way up to the tearoom on the 5th floor. That nap had given her a bit of energy, but she was still fighting a wave of exhaustion.   
  
'What can I get for you, luv?' the attendant asked.   
  
Lily knew she needed to kick her coffee habit, as she drank so much of it that it had probably replaced the blood in her veins.   
  
'I'll get an extra-large black apple-cinnamon tea, double cupped with the bag in, please.'   
  
'Of course,' the matronly woman replied.   
  
Though there were healers she knew in the room, Lily chose to bring her steaming fragrant drink over to an empty corner of the room to relax in silence before she had to go see her new patient.

* * *

James woke up the next morning when a nurse came in to give him his Blood-Replenishing Potion. He tried not to gag as he forced it down, but the taste of copper, dirty socks and mud was almost too much to handle. James still tasted it at the back of his throat an hour later when he heard a knock at the door. He hoped it was the beautiful healer from the day before and so tried to put his hair into some type of order, but was disappointed when he looked up to see his agent Dan Donahue bustle through the door. Dan quickly shut the door behind him.   
  
'James, you're up! That's great. How're you feeling? He asked, but didn't wait for the answer before he continued. 'That's great. Look, for security reasons and so the damn papers stay away, I've registered you under the name John Smith, alright?'  
  
'Very creative, Danny,' James smirked, though it hurt his face to do so.  
  
'Hey, it's not my business to come up with cool fake names for you. Okay, I owled your coach and told him that there was a death in your family, and so you'll be taking a bit of time off, which oughta cover you.'  
  
'Who died?' James interrupted.  
  
Dan waved a hand at him. 'Not important, we'll figure that out later. Next, I also owled Remus, Sirius and Peter concerning your condition and what happened so that they know you're alright, but they'll see you when you get out of here as to not draw attention. The Ministry also knows what happened, but they'll be keeping it hush hush, and will be sending people by to take care of business.'  
  
'Is that everything?' James asked, exhausted by the other man's endless stream of words.  
  
A pad of paper appeared, and Dan read through it. 'Yep. Only thing I can think of is that you have one hot Mediwizard taking care of you!'  
  
James smiled, the redhead instantly jumping to his mind. 'Yeah, V is nice. But I'm convinced I know her from outside of the hospital. She's very familiar.'  
  
His agent looked confused. 'What's with all this 'V' stuff? I thought her name was Li-'  
  
'Good afternoon gentlemen.' Lily's voice preceded her as she banged open the door, effectively breaking up their conversation. Walking over to the bed, she picked up James' wrist, feeling for his strong steady pulse. 'Mr. Donahue, I'll need to re-examine the patient.'  
  
Dan just stood there, hands in pockets until Lily looked at him pointedly. 'Alone, if you don't mind,' she said, small smile on her face, echoed by her patient.  
  
'Oh sure,' he said. 'Anything you say.' And he was gone.   
  
As Lily examined James, he became a bit uncomfortable with her clinical air. 'Can you at least pretend that this isn't routine for you, like you actually enjoy having to spend time with me?'  
  
'Being a healer is my job, J, and I have to keep at least a little detached from my work or I'd go crazy with all of the horrible stuff I see everyday,' she replied.   
  
'Hey!' he said, mock affronted. 'I'm not that bad looking.'  
  
Lily laughed. 'You know what I mean. If I became emotionally attached to every patient I took under my care, I'd be in the Janus Thickey Ward upstairs.'  
  
'Well, I'm not dying, I'm not horribly scarred, and the last I checked, my insides weren't hanging out, so I think you're safe enough to at least try to like me. I am quite charming, if you get to know me.'  
  
Finishing her examination, Lily put away her wand. 'I'm sure you are. And I'm also quite sure that you're used to getting everything you want, women included.'  
  
James grinned, settling back against his highly heaped pillows. 'Being a Quidditch star does come with a few perks, and girls do like the athletic ones. But it's not like I ask them to throw themselves on me after matches and show up in my hotel bed.'  
  
Lily just raised a perfectly plucked eyebrow.   
  
'Okay, okay, you caught me, sometimes I do.' James held up his hands as if to ward off her glare. 'That expression on your face looks awfully familiar. I used to get it from a girl at school whenever I was doing something stupid.'  
  
'Well, I gave it a lot in my time. The 'I-can't believe-I'm-hearing-or-seeing-what-I-am' expression is practically burned onto your face when you're put in charge of a bunch of healers-in-training, especially when they first get here.'  
  
'V, how long've you been here?'  
  
Lily stopped by the door, and, checking her watch, came back to sit in the chair beside his bed. 'Do you mean in terms of being a Mediwitch, or how long has it been since I was at home?'  
  
James laughed. 'Both, I guess.'  
  
She settled back in her chair, adopting the casual attitude that her companion held. 'I've been at St. Mungo's since I finished my training at age 20. But I haven't been home for about 3 days,' she sighed.   
  
James took in her tired yet still attractive appearance. 'Okay, new question: how long has it been since you've slept?'  
  
Rubbing a hand over her face, Lily shrugged. 'I caught a quick nap in my office earlier today, but besides that, about 2 days.'  
  
'Why that long?'  
  
'It's always like this when I get a new patient, especially one in critical condition like yours was last night. Things get crazy, but they calm down after awhile. Don't worry about it.'  
  
'How do you stay awake?' James asked amazed, as Lily started poking him gently with her wand again, while she was still seated, starting some new tests. 'Pepper-Up Potion? Uppers?'  
  
'Nope, I do it the Muggle way. Lots and lots of coffee. Do you have trouble staying awake in your... whatever you do?'  
  
James looked confused. 'In Quidditch? Why would I have trouble staying awake in Quidditch matches?'  
  
'Not in Quidditch. It's not hard to figure out that you're involved with the Ministry somehow; no regular Quidditch players are targeted like you were.' Lily looked quite smug.   
  
'Good for you. I think I'll have to keep a little more guarded around you, before you figure out any more of my secrets, like my real name.'  
  
'How about you answer the question, and I won't dig for secrets about my newest celebrity patient and then share them with the rest of the hospital staff. And trust me, I work with a lot of curious people. Do you have trouble staying awake in your other line of work?'  
  
'Me?' James exclaimed. 'No way! I'm on top of things all of the time,' he replied, unconsciously messing up his hair.   
  
Seeing this, Lily sat up a bit straighter in her seat. That gesture was oddly familiar. 'You know, you really do remind me an awful lot of someone I went to school with.'  
  
James smiled softly, the same pondering expression on his face. 'You too. Something about that disapproving sceptical look you gave me a minute ago...whatever. But since we're on the topic of people, can you tell me about yourself? I'd love to know a bit more about the woman who has her hands up my shirt.'  
  
Lily blushed, but decided to go on, both with the questions and her tests, also curious to know more about her patient who came with a hidden name and history. 'Okay, but I'm just going to keep it at basics, but no names. I don't want to intrude on the privacy your agent is striving so hard to maintain. I am a muggle-born and I have one sister who, to put it mildly, is not so fond of our world. Your turn.'  
  
'That's it? That's all you're going to tell me?'  
  
'For now. Why don't we just alternate so we learn about each other little by little instead of one of us just talking on for a half-hour?'  
  
'Good point; you're quite the logical one. Alright, I'm pure-blooded and I am an only child. Though my best friends feel like my brothers sometimes, especially as one of them lived with my parents after he was disowned by his family for holding different views about the fate of those who weren't pure-blooded.'  
  
A troubled look passed over Lily's face, as this tale seemed to be one she was already acquainted with. 'How horrible! I know my parents didn't always understand what it's like to have magic and didn't always agree with my ideas on the subject, but they'd have never disowned me. Your poor friend.'  
  
James waved off her sympathy. 'Don't worry about him. Besides, he always maintained that he disowned them, and he's alright now. Perhaps even more pigheaded after the fact. But enough about Si- I mean, him, let's get back to you.'  
  
Lily looked weirdly at him, quite aware that her patient had been about to reveal a name of someone quite close to him. 'Alright, what else? I want to get a kitten but my hours here at the hospital are too crazy to even think of it, and before I became a Mediwitch I wanted to either be a singer or become a Charms professor.'  
  
'I have a white owl named Tuttle-'  
  
'Tuttle?' Lily interrupted, laughing.   
  
'Hey!' James looked a bit offended. 'It's a plenty respectable name.'  
  
'For a Dr. Seuss character maybe'  
  
'What?' James was very confused.  
  
'Muggle thing, never mind. But please continue.' Finished with her tests for the time being, Lily sank back down into the chair by James' bed.  
  
'Like I was saying before you so callously interrupted me, I have a white owl named Tuttle that I got last year for my birthday after my old owl passed away. But I've always wanted to be a Quidditch player since I was little, or an Auror like my father was.'  
  
'Was? What happened?'  
  
James got quiet and suddenly very interested in his fidgeting fingers in his lap. 'He, uh, passed away. He and my mother were killed, actually, in that raid on Diagon Alley last year.'  
  
Lily's heart leapt into her throat and she felt like smacking herself. 'I am so sorry; I shouldn't have brought that up.'  
  
He looked up at her, his eyes glistening slightly. 'Why should you be sorry? You had no way of knowing.'  
  
'I should have been more sensitive, though. But I can identify with what you're saying. When I was 19, my parents died in a car crash on vacation in America. A drunk driver hit them when they were driving to the airport to come home. I just felt lost without them, so I threw myself into training to be a healer.'  
  
Without realizing it, James had reached over and took one of Lily's hands into his and gently squeezed it. 'That must've strained the relationship between you and your sister even more.'  
  
Lily laughed hoarsely. 'You have no idea. You'd think that the loss of your parents would bring you together and let you bond over your common grief, but not with her and me. Instead she just turned to her new boyfriend Vernon, and with their joint hatred of all things magical, has pretty much cut me out of their lives. Sure, I'll get the odd card or Christmas present when my sister remembers how we used to like each other, but I don't see her.'  
  
'Do you miss her?'  
  
'Of course! I mean, she is my sister, but I don't miss the yelling or the name-calling or the ignorance. Sometimes, with my way of life, I think I'm better off without her.'  
  
"I'm sure she'll come to her senses and realize how she needs you in her life. I mean, why wouldn't she? I've only known you for a day and I think you're bloody brilliantly fantastic.' James squeezed her hand again.   
  
A faint blush stained Lily's cheeks.' You do?'  
  
He nodded. 'Absolutely.'  
  
James was about to add something else when a nurse walked into the room, disrupting the little domestic scene. Blushing even harder, Lily tugged her hand out of James' grasp before her colleague could see.   
  
'I've brought your Mr. Smith's Blood Replenishing Potion, Healer.'  
  
'Thank you, Jane. Just leave it on the table. I'll make sure he takes it.'  
  
When the nurse had left the room, James turned to Lily with pleading eyes. 'Do I have to take it? It tastes ruddy awful.'  
  
'Of course you have to take it. Right now it's the only thing standing between you and an early grave.' Lily had taken on her brisk professional tone, as to distance herself from the emotional scene she had just been a part of.  
  
'I don't think that potion is the only thing. You'd never let me die, would you?' He intensified his puppy-dog expression.   
  
'That all depends.' Lily smirked.   
  
'On what?' James asked with trepidation.   
  
'On how much you had annoyed me that day.'  
  
'How do you know that I'll annoy you everyday?'  
  
Lily shook her head, an all-knowing expression on her face. 'I know your type, J. You get people to like you by cracking jokes or playing pranks. With the people who are tough to crack, you annoy them until they break or kill you. Trust me; I went to school with a whole of bunch of people like you. They loved to play pranks on everyone, even their own housemates.'  
  
Curious, James asked the obvious question. 'What school did you go to?'  
  
'Uh uh,' she wagged a finger at him. 'Too personal. If I told you that, you'd try to figure out what age I was and if you'd ever gone to school with me. Then if you knew people I'd gone to school with, you'd probably ask them questions about me.'  
  
'I would never!' James put a hand on his chest.   
  
'You would so!' Lily said, laughing. 'You have something do with Aurors, and so you'll immediately want to know everything about everyone that you're in contact with. I bet no one can keep secrets around you.'  
  
'No one until you. Unless I just didn't care to know someone's secrets.'  
  
'It's nice to know that I'm the first one you've yet to crack.' Lily grinned widely, capturing James' attention. But it was broken when he let out a huge uncontrollable yawn, causing her to laugh. 'Why don't you just get some more sleep?'  
  
'Are you going to leave?' he asked, the puppy-dog look back on his face.  
  
'Well, I was going to run the results of my tests down to the lab, but I can come back after if you'd like.'  
  
James just nodded, a small smile appearing.   
  
Seeing as there were no current demands on her time, Lily decided that she would sit with J as he asked for a little bit longer as he had this calming effect on her. Coming back from the lab, she entered his room to see him already asleep, slightly propped up by his pillows. His ever-present cocky expression was gone, replaced with an innocence that was quite endearing. Smiling, Lily sat down in her chair by his bed and started on some paperwork.

* * *

A few hours later, the same nurse from before entered the room with a few scrolls of parchment.  
  
'Healer Evans, I mean, Lily, I have the information about Mr. Smith that your test results mapped out. I'm also supposed to tell you that when you're done with this parchment, you have to go home, Head Healer's orders. Lily, you're so exhausted that you're going to fall over. We can all see it. Do yourself a favour and just go home, alright?'  
  
As she spoke, Lily could feel her eyelids drooping. 'Thanks for this, Jane,' she said, holding up the parchment. 'And I'll be heading off in a minute. Suddenly I have this longing for a bubble bath, flannel pyjamas and a huge bowl of Half-Baked ice cream.'   
  
'Well, you deserve it. You've been here for 4 days and you're scheduled again tomorrow night. Get out of here. If I'm lucky, I can follow your example and get out of here in about 2 hours.'  
  
Jane left as Lily turned to look through the parchment. Besides the complete shattering of his collarbone, her patient's broken bones weren't that serious and most were healing nicely. The collarbone was a bit tricky and so it would have to be monitored for at least another few days, as well as the gash on his stomach created by the Concerpo curse was in danger of being re-opened if J engaged in most activities. That above anything would keep him in hospital for another week, and a piece of Lily was quite glad that he wouldn't be leaving for awhile.   
  
Her attention was drawn by noises of J waking up. She threw a tired smile at him as he squinted sleepily up at her through his hair. 'Good, you're still here,' he yawned. 'You just can't be without me, V. I understand. I _am_ devilishly handsome, after all.'  
  
'And modest too, I see. But I'm actually about to leave for the night after I give you an update on your condition.'  
  
James started to bolt up, but the pain in his stomach slowed him down. 'You're leaving? Why?'  
  
'Going to miss me already?' Lily teased, gathering her things.  
  
For some reason, James started to blush. 'Well, you are really the only human contact I've had since I got here.'  
  
'What about your agent Mr. Donahue?'  
  
'Oh, I wouldn't exactly call him human. Agents are really their own species.'  
  
This statement caused Lily to laugh as she reached the door. 'I have another shift tomorrow night and so I'll be back to see you then. In the meantime, a nurse will give you your Blood Replenishing Potion every few hours. Ok, quick update. You are in stable condition, but if you do anything to open up your stomach wound, the condition can change very quickly and you could be in trouble, especially if I'm not around. Your collarbone is also not healing as quickly as the rest of your bones so be careful. Have you ever broken your collarbone before this incident?'   
  
James frowned. 'Yeah, when I was 9. Why?'  
  
'That explains it. Previously broken bones always take longer to heal, even with magic.'  
  
'So what does all of that stuff equal in hospital stay time?' he ran a hand through his hair.   
  
'All in all, I think you should be here for about another 1-2 weeks,_ if_ you don't strain yourself.'  
  
'And you'll be here while I'm here?' James put an endearing smile on his face.   
  
'I'll be here most of the time, yes. You really are going to miss me, aren't you? Seems like someone has gotten a bit of a crush on their Healer,' Lily said in a sing-song voice.   
  
'Also seems like I'm not the only one in this room with abounding self-confidence. And for your information, I do not have a crush on you. I just think that you're a cool bird and wouldn't mind you hanging around in my room while I was here.'  
  
Lily stepped out the door, with a smile on her face and called over her shoulder, 'see you tomorrow Romeo.'   
  
Grabbing her purse from her office, Lily waved good-bye to her colleagues as she headed for the exit. Blending right in with the crowds that passed by the deserted department store, she was delighted to see that a Starbucks had just sprouted up across the street. Hardly heeding the traffic, Lily made a beeline for the caffeine hotspot and was relieved to see that there was no line. Reaching the counter, she rummaged through her purse for money while placing her order. 'I'll get a tall, skim-milk mochaccino with one sweetener and whip cream please.'  
  
After paying and receiving her drink, Lily took a seat by the window. She fully relaxed, taking a whiff of her steaming beverage. 'At least the good things in life never change.'  
  
Authour note: hey, I know the ending was a bit stupid, but I love Starbucks and a bunch of my friends and I would go during our lunch period if I ever had the car, which I did frequently. We went so much that the people behind the counter knew what we wanted as soon as we walked in. But you should never assume that just because someone wants skim milk and a sweetener, they don't want whip cream. Hey, I think I deserve the whip cream. Love you Starbucks crew! Even though the message is pointless and boring those of you who aren't in the crew, which is everyone. Seriously, that was pointless. But in the next chapter, I hope to get a little more into the J/L relationship and maybe someone will recognize the other! Well, we'll see. I also apoligize for the complete randomness of a lot of this chapter. I know it goes every which way, sorry!

Steph, you better appreciate your little bit in here, cuz I slaved over it. And you're not even around to praise me, boo hoo.


	3. Guess who?

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing copyrighted by anybody with a lot of money who isn't really interested in what I write to amuse myself.

**Author Note:** I'm back! Yay! (better note at bottom) Thank you so much to my beta Steph (username: Nymphean on fanfiction. Check out her amazing stuff!) for helping me with this chapter (yes, I used your suggestions.)

**CHAPTER 3**

'Oh, Healer Evans! Thank Merlin you're here!' A nurse ran at her as soon as she stepped away from the Apparition point.

'What? What is it? Where's the emergency?' Lily quickly looked around, suddenly professional.

'Oh no!' The nurse waved her off. 'Nothing serious like that. It's just about that new patient of yours, Mr. Smith. He has been completely insufferable all day. Whenever anyone enters his room to give him anything or check on him, he asks for you. And when we remind him that you aren't here, he gets all petulant and cranky. He's awfully cute, but he's also being an over-grown child right now.'

'Thank-you, Nurse Rexdale. I'll check on him first,' Lily replied.

As soon as she had hung up her jacket and grabbed her lab coat, Lily headed down to J's room and walked in to find him reading that day's edition of the Daily Prophet.

When Lily entered the room, James straightened up and smiled. 'Hey V!'

'Don't you hey V me.'

The smile quickly dropped off James' face. 'What did I do?'

'I heard that you weren't the nicest to any of my nurses or the other healers when they came into your room today. In fact, one nurse described you as an over-grown child. Everyone here is just trying to help you get better, J!'

'I'm sorry V. I really am, but I'm kind of picky about the people I let get close to me. I'm used to you know and I like you. Plus, I don't know those people. What if they had been here to kill me?'

Lily just laughed. 'Now that's a rational thought if I've ever heard one. I've only ever met one person who's that paranoid, and that's Alastor Moody. You must hang around him a lot. But every person on this ward has high-security clearance so you don't need to worry.' She took a seat on the side of James' bed, and checked the rapidly healing cuts on his face. 'Actually sounds like you missed me, and not just for my medical expertise.'

A flush crept up James' neck. 'You really need to stop that,' he stammered, 'or I'm going to think you're flirting with me, and isn't that against some oath you take or something?'

'If I'm flirting with you, it's hardly intentional. And it's Muggle doctors who take the Hippocratic Oath, not us Healers. I just find that I'm very comfortable around you, like I've know you a long time.' Having checked his vitals, Lily got up and smoothed down the bed blankets.

'I feel the same way!' James exclaimed.

An awkward silence followed.

'Umm, your vitals are great, and your wounds are healing well, so that's good.'

James settled back against his pillows. "Ah, the injury status sum-up. I assume that means you'll be leaving soon.'

Lily couldn't stop the smile from appearing on her face. 'Actually I was going to just go do my rounds, which shouldn't take long. After that, I'm free unless an emergency comes up. If you want, I can bring some work in here and keep you company if you'd like.'

'Could you?'

There was no way that Lily was going to be able to resist the boyish smile that popped up on his face. 'I'll be back in an hour.'

James watched his healer leave the room, her beautiful red hair swaying against her back. He fell back on his pillows with a sigh, but then winced as he aggravated the gash on his stomach. V had been right, he had missed her. She had only been his healer for a few days, but he had become oddly accustomed to seeing her pretty face whenever he woke up. And there he went entertaining thoughts about V that were not appropriate for a healer. The scariest part of his stay at St. Mungo's so far was growing this quick attachment to V; he knew that if he let himself, he could fall for her. James hadn't felt those kinds of feelings since at least Hogwarts. (A/N: tee hee hee.)

Shaking his head, James resolved not to think about his healer until she came back. 10 minutes into this resolution, he realized how futile it was.

He was dozing an hour later when Lily returned, a thick sheaf of parchment in hand. She settled down into the chair beside the bed and started to write.

* * *

James woke later to the sound of a quill scratching. Lily smiled at his tousled appearance. 'Do you do anything but sleep?' she smirked.

'Do you actually do any work around here?' he jokingly shot back. 'I mean, you're always in my room, it's like you never leave. I hate to think that the treatment of your other patients is lacking in length or quality just because you can't get past your mounting attraction to me.'

Putting the parchment down, Lily prepared herself for some verbal sparring, her favourite extracurricular activity. 'Mounting attraction? Hardly!' she snorted. 'I find you mildly decent-looking at best.'

'But these scars will give me that rakish, dangerous look that all women find irresistible, and then I'll have to beat you off with a stick.'

'And by rakish, dangerous look, you mean ugly and goofy, right? But it's no matter; you'll have no scars on that face if I have anything to say about it.'

James ran a hand along his cheek as if to feel the bone. 'I knew you'd never let anything happen to this perfect bone structure.'

'Whatever,' Lily muttered, indeed trying to tear her attention away from the aforementioned perfect bone structure. It had occurred to her the night before that J was a very attractive man and she begun to develop a bit of a crush on him. Part of Lily tried to talk her out of it, especially as he was a patient, but the other half of her tried to justify it, saying that it was so easy to feel comfortable around him and he had been such a good listener.

'Ugh! Stop it!' Lily said sharply, shaking her head. It wasn't until she looked up to see James looking at her strangely that she realized she had been talking out loud. "Sorry. I was thinking something I shouldn't have been thinking."

'About how my body's naked under this loose robe?' James winked.

'Now who's the one flirting with whom? And no way, Romeo.' Lily was about to continue when another healer stuck his head in the room. 'V, we need you at the front. Incoming 8, all male. Apparently a brawl in a pub downtown over a Quidditch match got very violent, and we're short staffed.'

'I'll be right there.' Lily turned to James. 'You'll be fine without me, and please be polite to whoever comes in here to help you.'

'Even if it's my manager?' he queried.

'Alright, there's one exception to the rules. Besides, it's past your bedtime.' Smiling, she turned and briskly walked out of the room to go and take care of the Quidditch hooligans.

* * *

It took a long time to stitch the fans up, and by the time Lily got back to James' room, he was out for the night. Crossing the room to grab her parchment, she saw that James was sleeping restlessly, limbs twitching sometimes as he muttered under his breath. Lily also noticed that he had kicked one blanket to the floor, and picking it up, she spread it over him, tucking in the sides.

Not noticing that James had woken up, she turned to leave and was startled when he grabbed her hand. Quickly turning back, Lily noticed his grey eyes looking sleepily back at her.

'Stay with me,' he whispered.

Lily had no choice as she could no longer deny the eyes anything that were currently sending unwanted shivers down her spine. Never letting go of his hand, she pulled up a chair.

'Thanks,' he mumbled and quickly drifted back to sleep, although he now slept peacefully, anchored firmly by Lily's warm grasp.

* * *

For the next few days, Lily spent a lot of free time in James' room, finishing up paperwork and working on research. While they chatted lightly, they also often sat in comfortable silence.

James often caught himself staring at his healer, transfixed by the ruby hair that fell across her cheek. But after a few minutes, he always caught himself and turned his attention back to his magazine. There was something so agonizingly familiar about V, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

Meanwhile, Lily found herself doing the same thing. When J ran his hand through his hair while reading, it brought a smile to her face which was hard to wipe off.

'Evans, get a hold of yourself!' she thought. 'Do not get a crush on this man. Yes, he is quite attractive but he's also a patient and he'll be gone soon. It's not like you to start getting all gaga over a guy you don't even know the real name of.' Lily turned back to her parchment, trying to focus on the words in front of her, but every so often her eyes would flick to her patient and a blush would creep up her neck.

'Oh Evans, ' she thought, 'you're in trouble now.'

* * *

About a week after James arrived at St. Mungo's, Lily popped in to check on him before she left for the night.

James was oddly silent as she checked his machines and stomach wound. But as Lily tucked his blankets in, he cleared his throat.

'V?'

'Yes?' she asked, looking up, amused at his hesitant tone.

'Umm, when I get out of the hospital, would you...I mean, if you're not busy...you don't have to...'

Lily smiled. 'J just spit it out. I promise I'll keep an open mind about whatever you're going to ask me. And I'll keep the hexes to a minimum.'

James grinned, glad that she had lightened the atmosphere, taking away some of his tension. 'Okay...when I get out of the hospital, would you come and watch one of my Quidditch games?'

'Will I know your name by then?'

'I promise I'll be able to tell you before then.'

Lily took a seat on the bed. Don't commit to too much, she reminded herself, then promptly threw that reminder away. 'Then I promise that I'll go to one of your games...when and if you get medical clearance to play.'

The huge smile on James' face dropped as he heard her last words. 'You always have to sneak in that last negative stuff, don't you?'

Lily shook her head. 'No, I don't need to, but I'm just trying to look out for you. As soon as you're healthy and fit enough to play, I will be in the stands, cheering as loud as I can.'

'Ooh, my very own little cheering section,' James waggled his eyebrows. 'Sounds promising.'

'I doubt that I'll be your first cheerleader, oh Mr. Heartthrob of the Quidditch Pitch.'

'How cute! You've already given me a little nickname.'

'J, you are absolutely horrible, and I am leaving.' Lily got up and when she reached the door, turned back. 'I'll be back tomorrow morning. Please be nice to anyone who tries to help you. Someone will be in later to give you a potion to help you sleep. I'll see you tomorrow.'

'Bye V.'

James sighed after she left. He couldn't believe how much of an idiot he'd been. It sounded like he had never asked out a girl before. But something about V just made him tongue-tied whenever she was in a 5 foot-radius of him. He'd have to watch himself from now on.

But his thoughts were interrupted by another healer bustling into his room. 'Where's Evans?' she asked, looking about in confusion.

James was equally puzzled. 'Who?'

'You know, your healer?'

'You mean V?'

The healer nodded, getting closer to the bed. 'Yeah, where is she? Lately she's always been in here, so I came here first and I really need her to sign some papers.'

James wanted his questions answered before he helped her with hers. 'What did you call her?'

'Evans.'

'Why?'

The healer looked at him like he was stupid. 'Because that's her name.'

'It is?'

'You mean, you don't know your healer's name?'

James shook his head. 'No. She just told me to call her V, to make it fair because for privacy's sake, I can't tell her my real name.'

'So you don't know that your healer is the Lily Evans?'

'_Lily Evans_?' He started forward at the name. No wonder she had been so familiar.

'Yeah, she only found the cure for Sense Noir, and is only the most sought after healer of celebrities. I totally thought you knew.'

'I had no idea.'

'Well, you're a lucky man. She'll cure whatever you have. But can you tell me where she is?'

James shook himself out of his daze. 'Oh, she left for home about 20 minutes ago.'

'Shit, I guess I'm going to have to owl this to her house. Thank-you!' the healer called over her shoulder as she left.

'Lily Evans?' he said out loud. He couldn't believe that he hadn't recognized her, especially after the huge crush he'd had on her at Hogwarts. She had even been all over the news a while back and still popped up from time to time. James' head must've been even more messed up than he thought. Bu then he grinned to himself. 'This is going to be interesting.'

A/N: uh-oh, James knows! What will happen next? Tune in and review to find out.

I was originally going to make this story a bit longer (i.e. 6-10 chapters) but I find that I can wrap it up in 5-6. I know this chapter is a bit short, but a lot happened in it and I have a politics essay to write so I'll leave it here for now. And sorry for the lack of updates lately, but being a frosh at university takes up all of my time right now. I love fics, but I also don't want to fail out. You're going to have a few chapters of all stories up soon (after this week) because I'll have nothing due for a while and can take time out to write. Love you all!


	4. the nose graze

Disclaimer: I don't own anything copyrighted by anyone, especially Harry Potter stuff or anything from the OC.

Author Note: So sorry about the wait. I am getting slammed with university stuff. But this is the second to last chapter, and I have most of that written out so it should definitely be out within good time. Also, if you can pick up the OC reference (hint: it's from the episode 2-12: The Lonely Hearts Club), you'll get my eternal love and fanfiction points (though, those don't exist, so you'll just get the love.)

Chapter 4

'When were you going to tell me that my healer was Lily Evans?' James demanded as a nurse first stepped inside the room the next morning.

'Good morning to you too, Mr. Smith. And in regards to your healer, we thought you knew who she was. What kind of patient doesn't know the name of the person taking care of them?'

'Clearly, a patient like me,' James replied, obviously annoyed. 'She told me to call her V, and didn't give me any other name.'

The nurse opened the blinds to reveal a tropical beach, the day's choice for scenery. 'Wow. That means she must be comfortable with you.'

'Who must be comfortable with you?' the person in question asked as she bustled into the room, a large cup of coffee in one hand and charts in the other.

'I was just telling Mr. Smith how comfortable you must be with him, because you only let a few people call you V.'

'Is that true, V?' James asked, quite intrigued.

'I, uh, well…that is to say,' Lily stammered.

The nurse shot an incomprehensible look at the pair, and backed out of the room saying, 'I'll just leave you two alone.'

Lily puttered around the room, hoping that James would just forget about the matter, but when she turned back he was clearly waiting for an answer.

'Can't we just forget about this? Just put it in the past?' she pleaded.

'I don't think so,' James said, a cocky tone slipping into his voice. 'Just how comfortable are you with me?'

'Don't raise your eyebrows like that at me, J.'

'Why not? Don't I have a right? I mean, after all I am one of the few people you let call you V. I feel I should feel very good about myself right now.'

'If you're going to act like that all day, I'm just going to take my work and do it in my office. It'll serve you right if you only get to deal with brassed off nurses all day,' Lily shot back. She turned from the bed to leave, but James caught her wrist and pulled her back to face him, startling her.

'Please just tell me V. We've always been honest before. Why do you let me call you V, and don't give me "I like to keep it casual with patients" or that it's just a hospital nickname. Tell me the truth.'

'I don't know!' Lily cried, for it was true. Deep down, she knew that she had been strangely comfortable with J the minute she had looked down at him in the stretcher. She really couldn't ignore that fact any longer. 'It just feels right. I haven't had someone call me a nickname in a long time, and I miss it. It's better than my real name.'

'Which is?' James was dying to let her know that he knew who she was, but wanted Lily to fess up.

'Ah ah,' she waved her finger. 'We're not at the name stage of the game. We still have a ways to go.'

James sighed heavily and sat back. 'This is not a normal patient-healer relationship.'

Lily laughed. 'True, but think of how boring it would be if it were.'

James could only grin, knowing that he never really dealt well with normal. Like his healer had said, normal was just too boring.

'But all stuff about me aside, I actually came here with some good news. If everything goes as well as it has, and you don't do anything stupid, the stomach wound will be healed in about 2 days and you'll be able to go home.'

'I won't do anything stupid!' he cried.

Lily just looked pointedly at him.

'Fine. I'll try not to do anything stupid. And hey, I haven't done anything like that yet.'

'I'll try to keep my expectations high, though I'm not as optimistic as you seem to be.'

'Ye of little faith.' James grinned up at her, and Lily felt herself pulled to him by the pure magnetism of that smile.

Suddenly, her mouth was dry. She previously underestimated just how attractive her patient was, and just how much she was affected by him.

James noted how his healer was slowly edging closer. Soon, she was right by the bed, and he found himself staring into her emerald green eyes. James heard a pounding in his ears and realized that it was his own heartbeat. He wondered if it was loud enough for Lily to hear.

Lily wondered what had come over her when she found herself leaning over him and saying, 'your blanket's become untucked. Let me help you.'

Her hair hung in front of James' face as she leant over him, enveloping him in the scent of vanilla. Acting purely out of instinct, James grasped one of Lily's hands. Startled, she looked at him and realized just how close their faces were.

Putting his other hand behind Lily's neck, James started to slowly pull her towards him. Their lips were almost touching when the pair heard a noise from the doorway.

'Good morning!' came the voice of James' agent.

Lily sprang apart from James and whirled around to face the agent. He stood there smiling at James and Lily, who were very shocked.

Lily shook herself out of her stupor, and quickly reached the chair where she had left her parchment. 'I'm just going to do that work in my office now.' She hurried out of the room, face flaming.

James suddenly found his lap very interesting, and his eyes rested everywhere but the door.

'What's going on here, James? Did I just see what I think I saw?'

'Really depends on what you think you saw,' he mumbled.

Dan Donahue laughed. 'I'm pretty sure I saw you and your mediwizard about to do some very personal one-on-one healing.'

'That was very creative of you, Dan.'

'But seriously James, how did you manage that? Isn't she off limits, being your Mediwizard?'

James straightened up. 'Turns out that my healer 'V' is really Lily Evans, a girl I went to Hogwarts with. A girl who I was half in love with since the moment I met her, though I often annoyed her to no end.'

His agent lit up. 'That's great! I'll just go write the press release about you finding the love of your life. The papers are going to have a field day!'

'Don't do that.' James was adamant. 'I haven't gotten to that stage yet. Plus, it wasn't even a real kiss. More of a nose graze. But it was the most sexually charged nose graze in the history of nose grazes.'

The agent just gave James a look but continued on. 'But I at least get to stop with the whole fake name of yours in front of her.'

'No, that has to stay. She doesn't seem to remember me, and I don't want you to remind her either.'

'Why not?'

James sighed and fidgeted with his blanket. 'Well, we weren't exactly always on the best terms back in school, and now I can see that she's getting interested in me. I want Lily to get to know the real me, without her past negative feelings clouding her judgment.'

'Sounds like a viable plan.'

'But it's also a blackmail thing,' the Marauder grinned. 'I want to see how long it'll take her before she recognizes me. And no telling her! That would ruin it.'

Dan shook his head again. 'You are cruel, James. However, I just stopped by to check in on you. Now that I've maintained that you are still alive and able to make me money, I'll be on my way back to the office.' Reaching the door, the agent turned back with one last question. 'You said you used to be in love with her. What about now?'

The goofy grin that appeared on James' face said it all. 'Ooh, your female fans are not going to be happy about this.'

James sat there with that silly grin for a long time after his agent left the room. Now that Dan was gone, he anxiously waited for Lily to return. But when it was apparent that she wouldn't be back for a while, James quickly got bored.

Seeing a stack of Quidditch magazines on a table across the room, James wondered how he would get them. He remembered Lily saying something about not getting up without her permission and not doing anything stupid, but he was feeling much better. Plus, Lily said that the stomach wound was almost completely healed, and so James was sure he'd be fine. After all, he'd only be walking around his room; nothing could go wrong.

James moved to the side of his bed, and feeling no pain, slid his legs down onto the floor. Standing up, he took a few ginger steps, bare feet quickly absorbing the cold from the floor, holding onto things as he went. Gaining strength, James decided to forego getting his magazines for a while and decided to take a few turns around the room to get used to this type of movement again. He was very proud of himself, but he took a quick corner around the bed and felt a very sharp pain from his stomach. Alarmed, James looked down and saw a huge red spot on his gown that was rapidly growing.

'Shit,' he thought, and turned back towards the bed in order to summon a nurse with the button. But halfway across the room, his steps started to falter and his head start to spin. As his vision started to go, James felt for something to hold onto, but only managed to pull down an end table as he landed on the floor with a loud crash.

Right before he blacked out, James heard a nurse rush into his room. 'Mr. Smith, are you alright? Mr. Smith? Shit, I need a healer in here! Mr. Smith is code blue! Healer!'

* * *

Lily sat at her desk doing paperwork after the embarrassing almost kiss with J. She was pretty set on avoiding him for the rest of the day, unless she absolutely had to tend to him. She couldn't believe how brazen she had been, leaning over him to tuck his blankets in. Groaning, she buried her head in her hands. Lily saw that she was clearly in over her head with J.

But her attention was drawn to the magical stone flashing on her desk, signaling that she was needed immediately for one of her patients. The flashing stone was followed by a magnified announcement that echoed through her office. 'Code Blue, rm 107 Morris wing. I repeat, code blue in rm 107, Morris Wing.'

Shocked, Lily jumped up from her chair with such force that she knocked it over. 'That's J's room!'

Lily bolted from the room and sprinted down the hall towards J's room, absolutely terrified. She knew that her feelings went far beyond the normal anxiety of potentially losing a patient.

She burst into J's room, and pushed through the crowd of personnel around the bed, not failing to notice the puddle of blood that still remained on the floor.

'What the hell happened here?' Lily barked out, hiding her fear behind a mask of irritation. 'He was fine when I left him, not bleeding.'

A short, blonde nurse stepped forward as Lily started to examine J's reopened wound.

'I heard a loud crash coming from this room, and I rushed in to see Mr. Smith collapsed on the floor, bleeding heavily from his stomach wound. I'm thinking that he got up to retrieve some magazines that were across the room.'

'What an idiot!' Lily exclaimed. 'I told him not to do anything stupid, which should've included not getting up without specific consent from me. Now he's taken several steps back in his healing.' The wound was still heavily bleeding, the flow not staunched by the spells that Lily was using, which extremely worried her. The edges of the gash were also ragged and bright red, indicating that it had been ripped apart.

'Heart rate and blood pressure are dropping. What should we do, Healer?'

All her fear for James rose up into Lily's throat and threatened to choke her. She froze for the first time in her medical career, realizing the exact reason one wasn't supposed to heal or work on family or people they extremely cared about; the emotions were far too high and got in the way.

'Healer Evans, the patient is going to crash. What should we do?'

Those simple sentences scared Lily out of her frozen state and into action. For the next minute she furiously worked to close the wound which seemed to be resistant to spells, and to raise J's blood pressure and heart rate. Every time she looked down at his deathly pale face, she dug inside herself for more strength to save him.

And then, as if by a miracle, everything clicked. The wound remained stitched, his heart rate and blood pressure returned to normal and colour started to return to his face.

One by one, the other mediwizards and nurses turned to leave and congratulate her on the save. But Lily didn't hear them as she stared down at her patient, not even noticing the tear that had sprung unbidden to her eyes.

However, the nurse Jane did notice, and put a reassuring hand on Lily's arm. 'I'll make sure everyone leaves you along with Mr. Smith. You did well, V.'

She registered the nurse leaving and placing a ward around the room, but all Lily could do was sink into the chair by J's bed before she was blinded by her tears. She grasped J's hand and started to talk to him as the tears continued to flow.

'You are so stupid, do you know that? Always have to do things for yourself, never asking for help though you know it isn't safe to be that thoughtless. I warned you not to do anything stupid, you bloody jerk!' Now a bit angry, Lily took a quick swipe at her tears. 'I was absolutely terrified when I heard the code for this room, because I had left you perfectly fine. I had never really thought about how things change so drastically in an instant. I was terrified that I would lose you before I even got to really know you.'

A small groan came from the unconscious J, but when Lily saw that he wasn't waking up, she continued. 'It was only when I thought I might lose you that I realized how deep my feelings were for you, beyond our patient-healer relationship. But I'm really scared and confused about this because I don't even know your real name or anything concrete about you but I still feel like I've known you forever. What is going on? I don't even known why I'm telling you while you're unconscious, like the coward I am because I know you can't hear me and then reject me.'

By now, Lily's tears had dried, only leaving her with a small case of the sniffles, and she felt strangely liberated now that she made her feelings known though her listener was unconscious. Now that she was done ranting, Lily let herself wonder for the first time what it would've been like if she and her patient had not been interrupted. Were his lips warm? Would the kiss have been brief? She realized that she had been absently stroking J's hand as she held it, and decided that she had to get out of the room.

However, before she left the room, Lily did one last check on J. She made sure the wound stitches were still secure and that his breathing was normal, things she regularly did for any patient. But the soft kiss she put on his head before leaving the room was anything but regular healer behaviour.

* * *

Lily sat in the staff break room by the window, sipping on a cup tea. She was again thinking about her almost kiss with J, when Jane walked into the room. The nurse made her own cup of tea and then took a seat next Lily. They chatted about little things for a few minutes, but then Jane fixed the redhead with a sly look.

'You have feelings for that patient Smith, don't you?'

Surprised, Lily sat straight up in her chair. "No, I don't.'

'C'mon Lily, I'm not blind. I saw how you were after that code. You were so relieved that you were almost in tears. You never get that close to your patients, and that's how I know this one is special. You do like him, don't you?'

Lily blushed and looked down to avoid the inquisitive gaze. 'Yes.'

The blonde smiled. 'So what's the problem? You seem a bit gloomy.'

'It'll never work. You know we're not supposed to get involved with patients. It's a conflict of interest.'

'Yeah,' the nurse said, getting up and dumping out her tea cup, 'but he won't be a patient forever.'

The words echoed in Lily's head. He wouldn't be a patient forever.

A/N: Lame ending I know and here come the apologies about how overdue this is. Whatever, it's here, and the next chapter (like I said) will be the last. But, I like this chapter because lots of cool things happened. Man, I'm a loser. And I have a reference to my dorm room in there. When that happens, you know you have no good material.

Love you for feedback.


	5. Finally

Disclaimer: I own nothing copyrighted by literary geniuses or companies that don't care about a 19 year old girl writing fanfiction.

Author Note: sorry about the wait…that's all I'll say about that. And in regards to James' Quidditch position, I have him playing seeker so that Harry being a brilliant seeker is more plausible though J.K. Rowling stated that James played chaser. However this confuses me as in OOTP he is always playing with the Snitch he stole. Is this just to practice a wide variety of skills or to appear cool? And the 1st movie doesn't help things much by listing James Potter as a seeker on the Gryffindor Quidditch shield. Any thoughts? Done my rant, onto the story. Wait, I found out what it is. Apparently a Snitch is a lot cooler to play with than a Quaffle if you want to impress the ladies (thank you J.K.)

This is the last chapter of this story, excluding the epilogue which will follow in a day or two (but it's pretty short.)

'Where the hell did I put my cup of coffee?' Lily growled as she ransacked the nurses' station in the emergency room of St. Mungo's.

'Whoa, Lily, what's going on?' one of the nurses asked, scurrying over and seeing the mess.

'I can't find where I put my coffee cup, and I need it!' she said, curiously close to tears.

'It's right here V,' Mark said from the door to the staff lounge. 'You started to pour the milk in but then got distracted by a code and left it here.'

'Oh thank Merlin,' the redhead breathed as she crossed the room in three long strides, and downed the coffee. She sighed in delight as the caffeine rushed through her system and lessened the muffled pounding behind her eyes. Opening them, Lily noticed that the entire emergency room was staring at her. 'May I help you?'

The room moved into action as people quickly got out of Lily's way.

'What is wrong with you? You just went postal on the nurses' station over a cup of java!'

She groaned, causing Mark to laugh. 'I'm sorry. I've just been going on no sleep, tons of cranky patients, and I haven't been able to see J all day.'

'J? That celebrity patient of yours? Do I detect something more in your tone than a regular healer's worry for a patient?'

'Am I that obvious?'

'Not to everyone, but I know you pretty well. Since when do you fall for your patients?'

'Never! What is wrong with me? I don't even know his real name!' Lily just shook her head. 'And speaking of the man in question, it is time for me to check on him so I'll see you later.'

Mark just waved her on as Lily took down the hall at a fast clip.

When she entered J's room, she found him sitting up in bed staring blankly ahead, but his attention snapped to her as soon as she stepped through the door.

'V! There you are! You haven't been by to see me all day. What gives?' he asked, slight pout on his very handsome face.

Lily tried not to make her happy feelings at seeing him too apparent. 'Sorry about that, it's been crazy around here this morning. I've been rushing around trying to deal with a few new patients. Plus, you're recovering quite well after your act of complete stupidity a few days ago and so you're able to go without constant supervision.'

'Funny, that's the exact opposite of what my teachers back in school would've said.'

Lily and James chatted quietly for a minutes as she checked his wound and wrote notes down on his chart. However, they were soon interrupted as James' agent rushed into the room looking panicked.

'Can you excuse me and J please Healer? I have some really important news to discuss with my client.'

Nodding, Lily got up and left the room, smiling at James from the doorway. James grinned back and continued to stare at the doorway until his agent snapped his fingers to get James' attention.

'Yeah, I get it. Your healer is one very attractive bird, but we've got more important stuff to deal with.'

'I really don't see anything bumping Lily off the number one place on my top priority list.'

Dan Donahue ran an irritated hand through his hair. 'How about responsible journalism?'

James was quite confused. 'Say what? Have you gone daft?'

His agent pulled a newspaper from behind his back and thrust it into James' face. James was confronted with a large picture of himself that had been taken before a Quidditch game during the season. It was accompanied by a glaring headline that read 'James Potter Missing from a Week's Worth of Practice: is it really a family emergency?'

Grabbing the paper, he read further out loud.

'_James Potter has not been seen in public since his practice with the Falmouth Falcons last Wednesday. His coach provides a death in the family as the reason for Potter's absence, but upon investigation this reporter has discovered that no such death has occurred. In fact, there have been no deaths in the Potter family since his parents, famous Aurors Brian and Kate Potter were killed in the tragic Death Eater attack on Diagon Alley last year. Friends and remaining family could not be reached for comment on James Potters' whereabouts.'_

Finishing, James sat there and stared dumbly at the paper. 'Are they bloody serious?'

'I'm afraid so,' Dan replied. 'I've already told your friends to keep their mouths shut and this hospital is legally required to keep your identity secret. Staff who work with you however will know. On my way down the hall, I passed a nurse reading the story so expect a hubbub.'

'Lily obviously doesn't know, otherwise she would've been in here like a shot to knock me upside the head. It'll only be a matter of time until she figures it out, and then I'm in for it.'

'What do you mean?'

'Do you remember how I told you that we hadn't been on the best terms back in school?'

Dan crossed his arms and nodded.

James sighed, thinking back to some of the worst rejections he'd gotten from Lily. 'That's because I was half in love with her but too immature to know how to handle it. I decided my best route would be to ask her out every day, even when I had a girlfriend hoping that after a while she would just give in.'

'And?'

'She just resisted me even further. But in 7th year when were Head Students together, we had to work together without her strangling me so I just gave it a rest. Still played pranks on people though, which apparently wasn't very appropriate. When she finds out about this whole thing, I'm going to get some speech about how I haven't changed and am still trying to get her to go out with me. Same old, same old. Plus she had that renowned redhead temper.'

The agent smiled as he picked up the newspaper. 'I think you may underestimate her. I see the way she looks at you, and I doubt she'll be angry. Probably just be amused if anything. Mark my words, you'll benefit in the end from this. But if you'll excuse me, I have to go create a new excuse for your public absence.'

'Good luck.' With that, James was left alone to both dread and long for Lily's return.

* * *

Entering her office, Lily was slightly annoyed. It seemed like every time she and J were alone lately and getting closer that damned agent of his interrupted them. And truth be told, she was getting sick and tired of all the secrecy for the sake of her patient's security. She felt a bit like an idiot having all of these feelings for J when she didn't even know his real name. She was no better, considering she hadn't told J her own name either. With that, Lily decided to tell him her real name as soon as she saw him next.

Nearing the desk, Lily spotted what appeared to be that day's Daily Prophet and sighed in relief. Because of her extremely busy schedule of late, she had not been able to sit down and read the paper- something that relaxed her because it took her away from the craziness of the emergency ward.

As Lily reached out and grabbed the rolled paper, her attention was called to her office door. There stood a young nurse, looking slightly panicked.

'We need you right away Healer Evans,' she said. 'There was a small Death Eater attack in a town outside of London. The wounded are being transported here and of course we're understaffed.'

Lily sighed and dropped the paper back on her desk. She was not even slightly surprised by the interruption. 'Of course. Let's go deal with it.'

* * *

It wasn't until the early hours of the morning that Lily and the rest of the emergency war staff finished with the victims of the attack. Patients had trickled in over the hours, but none with ailments that were too severe. Only 3 people had had life-threatening injuries but they were taking care of quickly, and Lily was proud to report zero fatalities. After she had finished with the charts and gave reports to Aurors and other Ministry representatives, Lily leaned against the wall and closed her eyes. At that moment, she was too drained to even seek sleep in her office which was only a meter away.

Lily was startled a few minutes later as she felt something tugging on her left hand. Looking down, she spied possibly the cutest little boy she had ever seen. He looked up at her with large emerald eyes through a shock of black hair. He couldn't have been more than 4 and was clutching a stuffed Snitch.

'Hey little guy. What can I help you with?'

The little boy just continued to stare at her so Lily decided to try another tactic. Hunching down to the child's level, she said, 'that's a cool Snitch. Can I see it?'

He nodded and held out the stuffed toy.

Lily took it and smiled. 'What's your name?'

'Aidan.'

'Hey Aidan, I'm Lily. I guess you like Quidditch huh?'

A shy smile appeared on his face as he nodded quite emphatically.

She laughed in response. 'What's your favourite team?'

'Falmouth Falcons.'

'Do you have a favourite player?'

'James Potter…'

Lily was glad the little boy was opening up to her and so decided to engage him in light banter until she could find out why he had stopped at her.

'I used to go to school with him you know.'

Aidan's eyes widened and his mouth dropped open. 'Really?' James Potter was clearly his idol.

'I swear to Merlin…so are you lost or something bud?'

He nodded and took his Snitch back. 'My da bringed my mummy her cuz my baby sister is coming. But I didn't wanna wait with da so I looked for her by myself but I couldn't find her. Now I'm lost.'

Lily stifled a laugh caused by the little boy's adorable confused expression. 'No sweetheart. What your parents meant when they said your baby sister is coming is that your mummy is having her now. You know that big bump on your mummy's tummy? That's where your sister was, and she just has to come out. But your parents must be frantic by now, what with the new baby and you being missing. Come with me, I'll take you back to the maternity ward.'

Aidan held his small hand out to Lily and grasping it, she led him away.

Reaching the maternity ward, it didn't take long to see who Aidan belonged to. A tall man with brown hair was quickly walking up the hall, frantically calling out the little boy's name. When Aidan saw him, he took off running, effectively yanking himself out of Lily's grasp. 'Da!'

His father caught Aidan up in his arms, squeezing him tightly. Looking up, he saw Lily standing there. 'Thank you miss! Where did you find him? I was going spare looking for this little hellion.'

'He found me actually. I'm a healer down in the emergency ward, and as I was taking a break I felt a tugging on my hand and there he was.'

'I brought my wife in her because she went into labour with our second child. I went to the desk to sign her in and when I looked back Aidan was gone. I'm Grant Bishop by the way.'

Lily reached out and shook hands with him. 'Lily Evans. Aidan actually told me that he was tired of waiting for his baby sister to come so he went to look for her himself.'

Grant turned his head to look at his son and chuckled. 'Did you really?'

In true child fashion, Aidan's response was just to bury his face into his father's shoulder. Grant laughed again and then turned back to Lily.

'Thank you so much for bringing him back to me Healer Evans. I thought I was going to have to go in there and tell my wife that I had lost our son, and I really like my limbs attached to my body.'

A grin lit up Lily's face. "That's generally the favourite place for them. But I have to get back downstairs and check on a few patients. Congratulations on the new baby and you,' she said, pointing at Aidan, 'no more running off okay.'

Aidan nodded and waved. Waving back, Lily headed downstairs.

As she was getting a few charts from her office, Lily let her mind wander. 'I wonder what he would look like if J and I had a son? Would he look at all like Aidan?' But she quickly brushed that thought aside and chastised herself. 'Get his real name first Lily, and then you can think about phantom children.'

Tamping down a blush, Lily decided it was time to check on J.

Walking into his room she noticed that he was once again sleeping and she smiled to herself. He moaned softly as she checked his collarbone and stomach but didn't wake up.

'Looks like he's almost able to check out of this place,' said a voice from the doorway, startling Lily.

'Looks like,' she replied as one of the interns entered the room.

'I can't believe a huge Quidditch star is on our ward!' the intern gushed.

'Huge star?' Lily questioned.

'You know who he really is, don't you?' the other woman asked Lily as she tenderly gazed down at the sleeping James.

'No. His face is so familiar and I've been trying to place him since he got here but I can't do it and it's been driving me crazy.'

'Are you serious? That's James Potter, seeker for the Falmouth Falcons and the English National Quidditch team. There was a front page story about him in the Daily Prophet today too!'

At the mention of his real name, images flashed in Lily's mind of school Quidditch games, dances, feasts and long common room nights, all filled with James' grinning face. And why hadn't she clued in before when Aidan had mentioned his favourite Quidditch player?

'I can't believe I didn't recognize him!' she cried. 'I mean, we were in the same house at Hogwarts for 7 years. We were even heads together! I can't believe I was that blind!'

'I wondered when you were going to figure it out,' a voice said from the bed. Lily looked down to see that same grinning face. She moved to sit on the edge of James' bed, the intern slipping out of the room completely unnoticed.

'Hey, I'm not completely at fault here. You can't say that you knew who I was either.'

James grinned unabashed. 'True. At first I had no clue, but things started to click in after awhile. Your smile is still the same, your laugh and the way you flip your hair. You still bite your nails when you're thinking. But what tipped me off was the look you kept giving me when I did or said something incredibly stupid. That look has been burned onto my memory from repeated viewing.'

Lily just gazed at him skeptically. 'Someone told you my name, didn't they?'

She thrilled as James took her hand laughing. 'Yeah, but all that stuff is true. You're still the same as you were at Hogwarts.'

'As the sophisticated young women that I am, I'd like to think that I've changed at least a little.'

'Well, you are more beautiful than before, though when we were 17 I would've never believed it to be possible.'

Lily smiled at him indulgently. 'Flattery will get you everywhere.' She was a bit disappointed as James abruptly let go of her hand, but realized why when he stuck his hand out towards her.

'I'm James Potter. My best friends call me Prongs and my healer calls me J.'

Lily put on a serious expression as she and James firmly shook hands.

'I'm Lily Evans. My friends call me Lily, and my colleagues and one patient call me V.'

'Well, now that we've been properly introduced, will you go on a date with me Miss Evans?'

'I'd like that Mr. Potter.'

A silly grin appeared on his face. 'I have been waiting for that answer since I was 11 years old.

'Are you serious, and don't even think about bringing back that tired joke.'

James nodded, pieces of his messy black hair failing into his eyes. 'Lily, part of me has been in love with you since the moment you tripped me on the Hogwarts Express first year. But I was a complete berk and didn't know how to deal with it, so I just decided to annoy you until you finally caved and went out with me. It took me until 7th year to realize that it was a stupid plan and I thought my best bet would to just be friends with you so that you would see that I had changed. And we did become friends, but it never led to something more. So when we left Hogwarts, I was determined to forget about my feelings for you. It actually worked and after awhile, I only thought about you when I saw you in the paper and that was only with reminiscent fondness. But when I found out that you were my healer and I saw how you started to look at me, I knew that it was fate.'

Throughout this speech, Lily's heart alternately clenched or felt like it was going to burst with joy. 'Why didn't you tell me who you were as soon as you realized who I was? I wasn't going to give away your true identity. For one, I know how to keep a secret (remember Remus) and two, I'm contracted to the hospital for this sort of thing. I wouldn't have risked my job.'

The smirk that Lily had hated in Hogwarts now became endearing as he replied, 'I wanted you to come to terms with how you felt now before you had to deal with the way you thought about me when we were teenagers. Plus, its kind of funny to see you in a situation where you're not in control and don't know exactly what's supposed to happen, Miss Know-it-all.'

Lily reached out to slap his arm, but James used his seeker reflexes after catching her hand to pull her until she was laying half on top of him. 'Ah, that's where I like you. Much closer.'

But Lily quickly slid off him to stand by the bed.

James' expression darkened. 'What's wrong? Are you shirty with me or am I still that repulsive?'

'No!' Lily cried. 'I just wanted to lock the door so that nobody could interrupt us. With an unlocked door, knowing our luck, your agent would find it the best time to check in on you. Not to mention the hospital staff who now know who you are and want to catch a glimpse of you. I want to do this right and I don't think I could stand being interrupted again.'

He waggled his eyebrows at her, very relieved. 'Sounds like someone is anxious.'

'You think you would be too. After all, you said yourself that you've been waiting for over 10 years,' Lily flippantly replied as she shut and locked the door and firmly drew the blinds across the window to the hall. Turning, she flashed James a shy grin.

'Come here,' James said, holding his hand out to her. Lily gently grasped it and took a seat by the bed so that she was facing James. She hardly dared to breathe as the man in front of her reached out with his free hand and stroked her cheek. A tremulous smile appeared on her face and James slid the hand back to cup her head and bring her closer.

Just as their faces were close enough that their noses were a few inches apart, James stopped. 'Lily, I just want you to know that his won't be some week long fling for me. No flavour of the week; this is real, it's what I want and I want it to last. Is that what you want as well?' His heart madly in his chest, half believing that this was an elaborate joke and his friends would soon jump from their hiding spots and yell 'Gotcha!' Perhaps he was still asleep and this had been a dream the whole time.

But the girl who had briefly closed her eyes in wonder as he touched her was real and so were the words coming out of her mouth. 'James, I'm ready for this. I think my heart has always been waiting for you, even though my brain never made the connection. But I've grownup, so I'm not some stupid kid anymore that can't look past the surface. I want this, and I'm ready to commit to this with you.'

At last, their lips met as their arms wrapped around each other with the same thought going through their minds. 'Finally.'

A/N: I thought this chapter was a lot longer than it actually is, but I guess that's what happens when you write it out on paper first and then transfer to the computer. Okay, so that's the end of this story, except for the epilogue which will be out in the next few days and it will be the official end to the story. Oh man, this is the story I started most recently and I finished it before the other fics that I've had going for 2 years. Bad Lisa, bad Lisa. Please review. Did you like the ending? Was it unrealistic?

I'm probably going to have more chapters up of another story soon so please check out my other stuff. I would love you forever.


	6. Epilogue

Author Note: sorry about the wait. I know I said I'd have the epilogue out a day after the last chapter but then work got in the way. Don't you hate when they actually want you to do things? Damn. Well, I hope you enjoyed the story and from here you can take the story wherever you want. Perhaps happily ever after for Lily and James actually exists somewhere. Here's hoping…or just using our imagination. And thanks to Mugglenet for Potterverse stuff.

2: remember, this is an epilogue so it's short. Sorry to complain, but I really hate getting reviews about chapter length. But this one is short for a reason: it's the end!

* * *

'Potter! Potter! Potter!'

Thousands of separate voices in the Quidditch stadium melded into one as Lily made her way up the steps to the VIP viewing box. It was so loud that she was having trouble hearing anything else.

But luckily the noise broke for a second and she was able to discern another name being called out.

'Lily! Over here!'

She looked up to see James' agent Dan standing by two empty seats at the front of the box. She took the last few steps with a smile.

'Thanks for getting me a ticket at such short notice Dan,' Lily sighed.

He waved her off with a grin. 'Anything for the girlfriend of my biggest client. I made sure to get us seats at the front so that James will see you when he does his slow lap around the pitch.' Dan guided Lily to her seat. 'You picked a good game to come to.'

'What's so special about this one?' the redhead asked as she absently waved her Falmouth Falcons pennant.

'It's the last game before the playoffs, though the outcome of this game won't affect the standings. But Falmouth and Puddlemere are the best teams in the league and won't meet again until the finals, which they're the favourites to do. This match is kind of a preview for the finals. Plus, James hates Puddlemere's seeker Ewan Gordon, though he's never said why.'

Lily blushed, knowing the reason. 'I think I can answer that. Ewan and I used to date on and off at Hogwarts and James hexed him on a regular basis in account of it. One time he-'

Lily was cut off by the announcer's voice echoing through the stadium as he introduced the visiting team of Puddlemere United. She paid little attention as the players dressed in navy started flying around the pitch. She only had eyes for the team dressed in dark grey, one in particular.

Lily jumped as the announcer spoke again. 'Alright Falcon fans, time to meet your players…'

While he paused, the din grew deafening as the home team was the clear favourite.

'Falmouth's captain and seeker, the man who will guide us to victory, the one…and only…James Potter!'

Lily leapt out of her seat and cheered like crazy, not caring how stupid she looked as half of her goal was to draw James' attention over.

When he finally caught sight of her as he did a lap around the pitch, his face split into a huge grin and he sped over.

Forgoing words at first, James leaned into the box and kissed his girlfriend firmly which caused the spectators to cheer suggestively.

Releasing her, James sat back on his broom. 'Lily, what are you doing here? I thought you had to work today.'

'I promised you I'd come see a game, remember?'

James laughed, shaking messy hair off his face. '7 months together and this is your first game. Very devoted you are.'

Lily's face held a mock-angry look, though her boyfriend knew she was joking. 'Hey-'

James cut off and decided to rile her up a little more. 'And you can't use the excuse that I never come to see you work, because the last time I checked St. Mungo's doesn't have a cheering section. Plus, I've seen enough of the inside of that emergency ward this year to last me a life time.'

She just glowered at James. 'You know how crazy my schedule is! But I unexpectedly got the day off, and what better way to start our anniversary weekend?'

A blank look crept onto his face. 'It's our anniversary this weekend?'

Lily's mouth dropped open. 'You forgot this weekend was our…'

James' laugh interrupted her tirade. 'I didn't forget. I just like how cute you look when you're angry. 7 months since our first date; I'm not going to forget something like that. Especially since I tried to get you to go on that date for 7 years.'

He leaned in for a kiss. 'One for good luck?' he asked innocently.

Lily smiled and softly kissed him. 'Good luck…not that you need it.'

With a grin, James pushed off to meet his team. He took a quick detour on his way there and spent a minute talking to the man inside the control booth above one of the scoreboards.

* * *

Lily had always enjoyed watching Quidditch at Hogwarts, but it had been a long time since she had watched a game so she took in the ensuing one with relish.

The Puddlemere-Falmouth game was skilled yet extremely dirty. James flew with ease, and after awhile, Ewan Gordon gave up looking for the Snitch and instead studied James for signs that he had spotted it.

It was the roughest game Lily had ever seen, including those between Gryffindor and Slytherin. She shrieked and closed her eyes as a Bludger aimed at his head caused James to push his broom into a sharp roll. She let out a huge sigh of relief as he righted himself but then he was off like a shot.

'And Potter has seen the Snitch! He's off with Gordon in hot pursuit. But Potter's ahead by a broom's length which will give him a distinct advantage.'

That broom length was all James needed as his capable fingers quickly closed around the Snitch, the stadium erupting in cheers. Lily leapt out of her east as James pumped his fist in the air, and she blushed as he pointed to her and mouthed 'this is for you!'

Lily watched as James turned towards the control booth and gave a thumbs up to the man he head been talking to before the game. A second later, a fireball came out from the scoreboards at each end of the pitch. They collided together, colourful sparks erupting every which way. But Lily opened her eyes as the bright light died down to see that the sparks had formed dazzling words 30 feet tall.

'_**Lily Evans, will you marry me?'**_

Her eyes flicked over to James who had flown over to rest just outside the viewing box.

'What do you think, Lil? Want to give forever a shot?'

The entire stadium seemed to be holding their breath along with James.

Lily just stared at him, emerald eyes wide in shock and mouth agape. But she quickly realized that she was the centre of attention for thousands of people and forced her voice to start working.

'I think I'm up to the task.'

'Is that a yes?'

'That's a definite yes.'

The biggest smile appeared on James' face and when Lily realized how happy those simple words made him, she vowed to think of other ways to keep that smile on his face.

Easing his broom as close to the box as he could, James hopped into it and passed his broom off to Dan who quickly edged away.

The raucous cheering of the fans seemed to fade away as Lily and James held each other. Leaning in, they whispered 'I love you' as their lips met.

James pulled back to Lily's dismay. 'I have a ring but it's not here, it's in my locker because I didn't plan to ask during the game because I didn't think you'd be here and-'

Lily put a finger to James' lips to stop his dazed ramblings. He was quite cute when at a loss for words, but Lily had other things to do in mind. 'Just shut up and kiss me.'

'Now that is something I can do.'

Author note: done! Yay! Another story in the hole for Lisa. Umm, yeah, the ending, oops. It sucks, but what can you do? I can't seem to escape the clichés. But until next time…


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